Vitello Earns First-Career Win as Vols Split Sunday Doubleheader

Sunday, February 18

Knoxville

12 P.M. ET

University of Tennessee

0-2

Maryland

2-0

Maryland

Tennessee

Vitello Earns First-Career Win as Vols Split Sunday Doubleheader

February 18, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 PDF Box Score (Game 1)PDF Box Score (Game 2)Game 1 Highlights Game 2 Highlights Postgame Media Photo Gallery (Game 1)Photo Gallery (Game 2)Postgame Quotes

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee split Sunday's doubleheader with Maryland at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, falling 10-4 in Game 1 before bouncing back for a 13-6 victory in Game 2 to help head coach Tony Vitello earn his first-career win as a head coach.

Individual recaps for each game can be seen below.

Game 1

Tennessee was unable to hold on to a late lead in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader against Maryland, falling 10-4 to the Terrapins at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Garrett Stallings provided the Vols with a quality start on the mound but left the game in the sixth inning after being hit in the hand by a line drive. The sophomore right hander allowed just one run on three hits in 5.1 innings before exiting.

UT took a 4-2 lead into the eighth inning after scoring a pair of runs to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately for the Vols, the back end of the bullpen struggled, surrendering a pair of runs in the eighth and six in the ninth to allow Maryland to take the lead.

The Orange and White were retired in order in the bottom of the ninth as Maryland improved to 2-0 on the season and secured the series win.

UT opened the scoring with a leadoff opposite-field home run by Jay Charleston in the bottom of the first after Stallings retired the side in order on just seven pitches in the top half.

Stallings held Maryland off the scoreboard until the top of the sixth when the Terps scored on a wild pitch by reliever Richard Jackson after Stallings was forced to leave the game.

The Big Orange retook the lead on a sacrifice fly by Andre Lipcius in the bottom of the sixth. Justin Ammons was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, stole second and ended up on third after an errant throw by the Terps' catcher on the stolen base attempt before scoring.

Maryland tied the game again in the top of the seventh after a one-out triple by Taylor Wright and a sacrifice fly by Will Watson, however, Tennessee responded yet again with a pair of runs in the home half of the inning to take a 4-2 lead. Ammons singled through the left side to score Luc Lipcius, and Pete Derkay followed with a double to right center to put the Vols up 4-2.

The back-and-forth affair continued with Maryland scoring twice in the top of the eighth to tie the game once again. Zach Jancarski and Wright both recorded RBI singles for the Terps to tie things up at four apiece.

Maryland put the game out of reach with a six-run ninth inning to secure the win. Connor Darling was stuck with the loss for UT while Sean Fisher earned the win for Maryland.

Game 2

A career day from Andre Lipcius helped lead Tennessee to its first victory under new head coach Tony Vitello as the Vols defeated Maryland, 13-6, in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader and the final game of the weekend series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Lipcius set a new career best with six RBIs and also hit his first-career grand slam to pace the Vols offense that scored 10 of its 13 runs in the first two innings of the game.

Junior right hander Will Neely was able to shake off a rough start to earn his first win of the season while the relief duo of Andrew Schultz and Donovan Benoit allowed just one unearned run over the final four innings.

UT had seven players finish the game with two or more hits, led by Lipcius and Benito Santiago, who had three apiece. Jay Charleston, Justin Ammons and Santiago all scored three runs apiece as well.

Maryland jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage thanks to a pair of home runs in the top of the first inning. Marty Costes led off the game with a solo shot to left center and Nick Dunn followed with his third homer of the weekend, a two-run blast to right field.

Despite the early deficit, the Vols responded in a big way with five runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Ammons, Lipcius and Santiago all had RBI doubles while Wyatt Stapp capped the scoring in the inning with a single to drive in his first-career run.

Tennessee continued to pour it on with another five spot in the second inning, punctuated by Lipcius' grand slam. Nico Mascia recorded his first-career hit and RBI later in the frame to give the Vols a 10-3 lead.

The Big Orange added to their lead with runs in third and fourth innings courtesy of solo home runs by Charleston and Santiago to make it a 12-3 game.

The Terps got two back in the fifth with a pinch-hit two-run single by Randy Bednar and added another in the sixth after a throwing error by the Vols, but were shutout for the remainder of the game by Benoit, who earned his first-career save after tossing three scoreless innings in relief.

Dunn led the Terrapins with two hits and two RBIs. Junior pitcher Hunter Parsons was credited with the loss after giving up eight runs in just one inning pitched.

Notables

Charleston Goes Yard Twice
Tennessee leadoff man Jay Charleston hit his first-career home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader. The Longwood, Fla., native went deep again in Game 2 with a solo shot in the third and finished the day with three hits four runs scored over the two games. Charleston didn't have any homers in 25 games played as a freshman.

Career Day for Andre
Sophomore shortstop Andre Lipcius had a monster performance in the second game of the day, setting a new career high with six RBIs. Lipcius had an RBI double in the first inning and hit his first-ever grand slam in the second. He capped off the night with an RBI single in the eighth to become the first Vol since Nick Senzel in 2016 to drive in six runs in a single game.

Next Up
Tennessee will play its first midweek game of the year as in-state foe Lipscomb visits Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Tuesday. First pitch for that game is set for 3:30 p.m.

Quotables

Head Coach Tony Vitello

On what changed offensively going into the last game:
"I think they kind of came out of their shells. It probably helped us that (Maryland) scored in the first inning to relieve any tension that our guys had. I don't know that we can put up 13 runs every game. As a matter of fact, I know we can't put up 13 every game, but we can certainly perform better than we did the first two games. Hats off to Maryland's pitchers. That's a regional team we played. A regional team usually has two starters that you can really trust, and those first two guys were tough but they're no different than what we're going to see in the SEC. We need to do a better job against those guys, but I'll take the effort we had in game three."

On how concerned he is moving forward in regards to how many pitchers he used in this series:
"I'm not concerned at all. Texas A&M head coach Rob Childers is one of the best coaches in the country. He always talks about what we have to do to win this game, and that was the focus here. I would have loved to have used some other guys off the bench since we had a sizeable lead there, but we have to do whatever we have to do to win the game for our team. We'll assess that. I really feel like our strength with our pitchers is that we have a bunch of useable guys, and I say that as a compliment. There's a lot of guys who can pitch for us. They haven't separated themselves either, which can be a negative as far as knowing who's the guy in the eighth inning with a lead, who are the three starters, who's your Tuesday starter. We're separating and subtracting and guys are moving up and down. Donovan Benoit is going to move up."

Sophomore INF Andre Lipcius
On how it felt to get a grand slam:
"It felt good to finally get the bats alive. The whole fall and all spring we've been hitting the ball really well, and the first two games didn't show it at all. It felt good to finally get them started."

On how comfortable he playing shortstop this year:
"I'm really excited to play there because I played there in high school. I feel a lot more comfortable there than I did at the beginning, and it feels good to make plays."

Sophomore OF/INF Jay Charleston
On how the team dealt with adversity this weekend:

"I think our offseason helped a lot with that. Our new strength coach (Quentin Eberhardt) does a really good job with handling adversity, so I think that played a really big role in coming back from two losses."

On if it was a challenge going from outfield to second base:
"It wasn't a challenge. I get plenty of reps at both positions. I'm just prepared."